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xvi Histori c a l I n trodu c t ion grizzly bears, huge mosquitoes, harsh winters, and the Rockies. They had gathered previously unknown animals, including prairie dogs, woodrats, mule deer, species of fox, jack rabbits, and types of catfish, and brought them back east for the first time. They had mapped out and named mountains, rivers, and streams. They had, in a sense, made America. Why an Expedition? On July 4, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson announced that the United States had just bought 825,000 square miles from the French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte. The cost was $15 million, or less than 3 cents per acre. The Louisiana Purchase was perhaps the best land deal ever made. It doubled the size of the United States, adding all or part of 15 modern states: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Loui- siana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. This vast new addition needed to be thoroughly mapped and explored. It needed careful observers to collect and record previously unknown plants and animals. It needed a summary of the Native nations who lived there, and it needed contact to be established between the presi- dent of the United States and these nations. Its rivers, streams, and mountains needed to be noted and named. But most of all Thomas Jefferson wanted to find the Northwest Passage. The Northwest Passage would provide a navigable water route between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean, one that Jefferson and many others at the time believed existed. Having waterborne access to the Pacific from the East Coast of the United States would mean a more direct trade route to and from Asia. Such a route would mean greater wealth for America. Ever since he was a boy growing up in Virginia, Jefferson had been fascinated by the West. His father, Peter Jefferson, had been a landowner, surveyor, and map-maker who documented previously uncharted parts of North Carolina and Virginia. After his father died in 1757, two of the most important people in Jeffer- son’s life, Dr. Thomas Walker and Reverend James Maury, were both interested in science and exploration. With these three influences in his life it is no surprise that Jefferson spent much of his youth exploring Virginia, studying the Native peoples and reading everything he could about science, in particular geology and pale- ontology. Even during his time in college at William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, from March 1760 to April 1762, Jefferson continued these studies along with classes in philosophy and math. After graduation, Jefferson returned to his family home in Monticello, where he continued these scientific pursuits and began collecting all sorts of historical artifacts such as arrowheads, axes, and pottery, which he studied in great detail. He also had a collection of plants and animals. Later, he added mammoth bones, tusks, and huge numbers of fossils to this collection. Jefferson was also always expanding his library. It is estimated that Jefferson owned somewhere between 9,000 and 10,000 books during his lifetime. In 1815, Congress bought Jefferson’s library at the time for $23,950. It contained 6,700 books.